Those flaws - addictions, dark moods, utter self-absorption - have been entry points for insight for guests. I'm no good at maintaining it with people I know for a long time."Īs a result, unique and human stories from Jenny Slate, Robin Williams and Mick Jagger. Old friend Louis CK, another interview subject, has said Maron's journey has been about bringing down his own defenses. I'm pretty good at intimacy with strangers. What he found with the guests in his garage: "My heart opening a little bit, and engaging with other people's stories. I was incapable of experiencing it,'' he says. Maron, who admittedly began his garage podcast as an angry, bitter, cynical, just-fired talk show host, seems an unlikely model for insight. "For years I didn't even know what the word empathy meant. And for Maron, that hope of a connection is fueled by the memory of conversations before they became little more than staccato bursts between checks on a cellphone. It starts with giving up something about yourself, often something less than flattering, says Marc Maron, host of the very popular podcast WTF with Marc Maron. How do you get people who have been through every sort of interview to talk about something new? Here is Maron, talking in April, on what made him distinctive and his interviewing technique. Comic-turned-podcaster Marc Maron has just become better known to a whole nation after President Barack Obama spoke with him on Friday, for a podcast being released on Monday.